This is a great mod by sdw195. The ability to create custom weapons and point-defense devices is excellent and the component images are great. I've updated it to work in 1.8b4 now 1.8, but it is not entirely free of bugs yet. Some PD devices have recoil which is a laugh! Feel free to play around with it.

The station frequency is set to common in systems up to level 9 so there are way too many but that's just for testing. There is a station in Eridani with the playership right next to it at game start. A few additional components are available at shipyards and arms dealers.

The PD devices use a couple of great images by Vizth. See the xelerus "Weapon Icons" mod.

EDIT: New version attached 12 Mar 19. Works in EP now. Needs game version 1.8.

Fixed the EP bug. Moving the playership to the Weapons Lab docking port messed up the EP start code.
The Weapons Lab in the starting system now gets created either 60 ls east of the start point for SOTP and CC or 60 ls east of the UAS Shipyard Kibo in EP. You have to travel there yourself now!

New version attached to the OP.
Works in SOTP, CC and EP.
Now requires either 1.8.1 or 1.8b5.2 (API 44).